• Save more for retirement – By increasing retirement plan contributions, you can reduce your income for tax purposes. Taxpayers can contribute up to $16,500 to a 401(k), 403(b) or Federal Government Thrift Savings Plan; those over age 50 can contribute an additional $5,500.

• Prepay January payments in December – Taking care of your January mortgage payment, 4th quarter state tax estimate, or winter semester tuition now lets you claim these payments on your 2011 tax return.

• Get to the doctor – If you are holding off on a major medical procedure until after the holidays, stop procrastinating and make an appointment now to increase your 2011 medical expense deductions.

• Give to charity – Giving cash and non-cash donations to charity can give back on your taxes. And volunteering time counts too, which means volunteers throughout the country may be able to deduct their out-of-pocket expenses on a tax return.

• Save energy, save $500 on your taxes – If you are planning to buy an energy saving hot water heater or install energy efficient windows or insulation to your home, do it now.  Up to $500 in credit may be available for making energy-related home improvements.

As a leading consumer advocate (www.stopthesecriminals.com), well-respected debt collector and bestselling author (Out of Control: Cases of Debt-Collection Abuse in America & What We Can Do About It), Bill Bartmann is available to help you avoid holiday spending mishaps.

Beware of the phony debt collector…
These days, falling behind on some bills is the new normal since so many people are juggling unemployment checks or part time salaries. But that opens the door for fake collectors to scam people out of credit card numbers and bank account information. According to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a debt collector cannot threaten arrest, call you after 9 p.m., at your place of work or contact others regarding your debt. If so, that person may very well be a scam artist.

Don’t be ‘naughty’ with your credit cards…
Credit cards can be useful tools for consumers, but you have to be careful not to abuse them during the holiday season. They can spell a quick slide into unmanageable debt if misused. Creditcards.com reported that the average credit card debt per household was $15,799 and the average annual percentage rate on credit card with a balance on it was 13.10 percent, as of May 2011.

Have no fear; help is on the way…
Not paying off debt can have other consequences besides having to dole out extra cash due to a high interest rate. A lowered credit score can affect your ability to snag a great deal on your next car, appliance, home or other purchases – or may prevent you from obtaining future credit altogether. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 70% of consumers surveyed say they have noticed new credit card disclosures on their bills. But fewer than one-third say this caused them to make bigger payments or stop charging up their cards.

The poll asked people the following question: “just thinking about your own situation, how much money per year would you need to make in order to consider yourself rich?”

The participants provided responses ranging from as little as less than $60,000 in annual income to more than $1 million, according to the survey.

The New York Times reports that having a household income of $150,000 would place that household ahead of either 89 percent or 90 percent of households.

The current debate surrounding “tax credits for the rich” involves additional tax benefits provided to individuals earning more than $250,000 per year and families generating more than $200,000 per year. Households earning this amount are somewhere between the 96th and 97th percentiles.

The results varied significantly depending on demographic differences. Young people without families generally do not have to worry about coping with high expenses, though loans have proven an increasingly heavy burden for many young Americans.

Conducted in advance of the so-called “Bank Transfer Day,” the survey asked more than 2,400 Americans about their views of their banks and the likelihood that that they would continue with their current service.

Respondents overwhelmingly supported their credit unions as compared to customers from major banks. Credit union customers rated themselves as 87 percent very or extremely likely to maintain their accounts, with another 10 percent ranking themselves as likely.

For-profit banks saw only 58 percent who were very or extremely likely to remain, with another 24 percent rating themselves likely. Bank of America customers proved the most dissatisfied, with ratings of 40 percent and 31 percent, respectively.

Credit unions similarly dominated in terms of having a trustworthy relationship, being valued as a customer and overall satisfaction.

Despite these strong sentiments, Slate’s Will Oremus pointed to serious problems with Bank Transfer Day, not least of which was that banks were mostly closed that Saturday. More notably, however, credit unions still offer fairly rudimentary online services and limited loan options compared to most major banks.

The Los Angeles Times reports that green sector investment amounted to only $684 million in the third quarter of 2010. This year saw a major increase, however, rising 73 percent to more than $1.1 billion.

“Confidence in cleantech investing continues despite the challenging investment market,” Jay Spencer, Ernst & Young Americas cleantech director, said in a statement. “We saw significant commitments in energy storage, which reflects a growing corporate focus on proactively managing their energy mix.”

As the biggest success of the quarter, energy storage saw a nearly 2,000 percent increase in funding to more than $420 million, as a growing number of companies attempt to tackle the issue of intermittency in renewable power sources. Energy storage could also serve to spur the growth of the electric vehicle sector.

The Financial Times reports that a recent survey found that a growing number of investors are interested in green or so-called “ethical” investments, with 38 percent expressing interest and the vast majority saying they are willing to switch portfolios if offered such an option.

Based on that broad measure, the country's economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.5 percent in the third quarter of the year, nearly double the 1.3 percent that the nation saw in the second quarter and more than six times the 0.4 percent growth rate seen in the first quarter.

The growth came on the back of substantially increased consumer spending and greater investments from private companies, even as government spending dropped at an even greater rate. Under normal circumstances, government spending provides a roughly 0.25 percent boost.

This marks nine consecutive quarters of gains after the massive losses sustained during 2008 and 2009, and should help to quell fears of a double dip recession in coming months. With the steady recovery from a number of unanticipated shocks earlier in the year, economists had predicted substantially improved growth, but The Washington Post reports that the underlying statistics proved surprisingly positive.

The Department of Labor released the latest Producer Price Index on Tuesday, October 18, which indicated that wholesale prices rose across the country in every sector. Overall, the index rose 0.8 percent from from August to September, after remaining stable in August and rising 0.2 percent in July.

The jump proved even more dramatic year-over-year, with prices up 6.9 percent from September 2010.

“Inflation is not wildly out of control but it certainly isn’t as tame as would be expected during this stage,” Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, told USA Today.

Gasoline was one of the biggest factors, seeing a 4.2 percent increase from August. With the largest rise in fuel costs since March, transportation expenses rose accordingly, pushing up prices for other goods.

Most disconcerting for many is the fourth consecutive month of increases in food prices, up 0.6 percent from August and up as much as 10 percent for dry vegetables.

It may sound a little odd at first. Their jobs often fit their need for security, salary, and sick benefits. For some, it even fits the big S need: status. Basically their jobs give them what they “need”, so “why should I be complaining” many of them say.

That’s easy… because they’re not living their dreams.

They think that they have to choose between their job and their dream.

They feel that somehow, somewhere, they have done something very wrong. They believe that must be true or they wouldn’t be so unhappy in such a “practical” situation.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact is many of us choose jobs or careers from the person we are at that point in our lives. You could be 22 with tons of student loans and feel that you need to take something reasonable that paid a decent salary right away. You may be born and breed to work for your family business so it seemed liked the most logical choice. You could have been young, carefree, and full of life, but with absolutely no clue of what to do. So you took a job to quiet your own insecurity and the loud voices of family members and friends.

No matter what you decided to do, there never was a wrong decision. You did what felt right at the time for what you needed at the time.

Maya Angelou once said “You did then what you knew how to do, and when you knew better, you did better.”

Blaming and criticizing yourself about choices from your past will get you nowhere when it comes to living in your dream. In fact, it will block you from even seeing where that dream can happen in your life.

Your dream requires you to be present, right now.

The way you can introduce your dream back into your life is through awareness and acceptance. Becoming aware of where your patterns come from and how they affect both mind and body can help you release the resistance you’ve created between your job and your dream. When you clear out the accumulated stress your body goes back to the way it was supposed to function and your mind is clear.

Accepting the choices you’ve made (the good, the bad, and the ugly) and loving yourself anyway brings your dream that much closer.

It’s not your job or your dream. You can have both. Maybe not this second, but the opportunity is always there to get started. It’s about re-learning how to be who you are in your current job and building a bridge to who you want to become. Once the path is cleared, you’ll move forward step by step by step.

Laura Tirello is a Career and Life Coach. Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are successful, but not satisfied, and are ready to reinvent themselves in the workplace and beyond. Are you ready to stop dreaming and start doing? Join me for my * free* teleclass “Your Job and Your Dreams” on September 20. Visit http://corelifedesign.com/services/teleclasses/ for more information and to register.

While most younger Americans are willing to accept the sense behind health insurance, many see life insurance as a concern for another time when there are children to worry about. Last year, research and consulting group LIMRA released a survey showing life insurance coverage had dropped to a 50 year low, with 30 percent of households having no policy in place. Between 1999 and 2009, the American Council of Life Insurers notes that the the number of policies fell by 3.8 percent.

Life insurance, however, can help protect spouses and family members just as effectively. This is particularly important given the amount of debt many Americans now accrue at a young age, a fact that is often ignored when considering potential expenses after death. Life insurance policies can go toward providing for dependents, but they can also help with debts like mortgages and expenses incurred such as burial.

The strongest argument in favor of investing is the likelihood that many people will eventually invest and the price only ever goes up with age. The Chronicle cites data from accuquote.com suggesting a healthy 35-year-old can get a $250,000 policy for as little as $160 per year, compared to $505 for a 45-year-old or $945 for a 50-year-old.

The key is to purchase a term policy, which can offer low rates for a fixed period, generally for 20 years. Longer-term plans, such as universal or whole life insurance offer benefits for those who pay in and live past certain points. These policies can prove profitable, but policy holders must meet a certain level of investment or face reductions in benefits, leaving the returns on investment constantly at risk.

“Using costly insurance contracts primarily as investment vehicles is generally inferior to purchasing low-cost, term life policies and investing the difference yourself,” Rande Spiegelman, vice president of financial planning for the Schwab Center for Financial Research, told the Chronicle.

Despite the potential benefits and the relatively low cost at young ages, life insurance does not always make sense. Without substantial expenses or vulnerable dependents, a policy can prove an unnecessary complication.

CareerRookie.com factored together data on the number of jobs available for people with less than one year of experience, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment and the proportion of young people in a city. The surprising top of the list was Hartford-New Haven, with an average rent of $1,047 per month. Boston and Washington, D.C., ranked third and seventh, respectively, despite average rents of more than $1,600. Cleveland proved the least expensive locale at $695 per month.

“There are almost three-times as many renters moving for new job opportunities this year than in 2010,” Tammy Kotula, public relations and promotions manager at Apartments.com, said in a statement. “This tells us that the economy is improving, but people are relocating as a result.”

The survey also incorporates information from the latest business survey from CareerBuilder.com, CareerRookie.com’s parent site, which suggests that the employment picture is slowly improving for college graduates. The proportion of businesses looking to hire recent graduates grew 2 percent from last year to 46 percent.